Saddleback Inn lives on in founder

Saddleback Inn founder Bruce Gelker holds open one of the doors to his office in his Long Beach home. Gelker took the door from the Saddleback Inn. SAM GANGWER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Saddleback Inn founder Bruce Gelker with one of the wooden statues from the inn at his Long Beach home. SAM GANGWER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Saddleback Inn founder Bruce Gelker holds a photo of himself and Ronald Reagan standing next to a statue of Napoleon. SAM GANGWER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Saddleback Inn founder Bruce Gelker, right, with two of his former employees, look over some of the clippings and photos in a scrapbook at Gelker's Long Beach home. Bonnie Teele Hastings, 75, of Irvine, left, worked the front desk with close friend Cheryl Scagliotti Winder, 65, of Orange during the 1960s and '70s – the hotel's heyday. SAM GANGWER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Former Saddleback Inn employees Bonnie Teele Hastings, left and Cheryl Scagliotti Winder hold a photo of the lobby area of the inn. Saddleback Inn founder Bruce Gelker now lives in Long Beach. SAM GANGWER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Clippings and photos regarding the Saddleback Inn rest on the desk of founder Bruce Gelker at his Long Beach home. A framed photo shows Gelker, right, along with Gene Autry and Roy Rogers at the inn. SAM GANGWER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

But more than decor, the Saddleback was about Gelker – his infectious personality, his vision of hospitality.

“In order to convince and sell people,” Gelker began as he met with a couple of former employees, about a month after their former hotel was reduced to rubble, “you can't scowl.”

But Gelker, still modest and courtly, was quick to add that the hotel thrived because of his team, not just one hotelier.

“Everybody had a personality, (and) that (created) a happy environment.”

Gelker and his former employees sit and joke, still friendly decades after they last worked together.

But they're quick to repeat what Gelker viewed as the golden rule of hotel management – make everyone walking into the lobby feel as they though they're walking into their own living room.

That's what they did.

FAMOUS GUESTS

When Gelker opened the 101-room inn (it later expanded to 231 rooms), the place was a rarity – an upscale hotel in Orange County that wasn't next to a beach or a theme park.

And, soon, it had a following.

“Our hotel was a who's who of Orange County,” said Bonnie Teele Hastings, 75, who in the 1960s and '70s worked the Saddleback Inn's front desk.

“It was a vibrant time full of athletic and political (personalities).”

Celebrities, too.

“We'd book rooms for high-profile (people) recuperating after a face-lift,” Gelker says, laughing.

Being a gentleman, he still won't name names.

But Gelker will say he was honored when Gene Autry and Roy Rogers joined up to visit the inn.

Same thing when motor sport legend Dan Gurney donated the rear wheels of a championship car, which found a display area in the hotel dining room.

“I remember George Allen and the Redskins stayed at the inn during their chance to beat the undefeated Miami Dolphins” for the 1973 world championship, Gelker says.

The Redskins lost, but when the team was leaving, the coach told Gelker, “Staying here had no reflection on the loss.”

Gelker also remembers making special accommodations for a member of the Los Angeles Lakers.

“He was so tall that I ordered a special-made bed for him.”

Members of the Blue Angels, the Navy's daredevil flight demonstration squad, slept there before big shows.

But even as the place gained traction with movie stars and athletes, The Saddleback Inn also became one of Orange County's power lunch spots long before that phrase came into vogue.

Fast-food pioneer Carl Karcher would bring top Carl's Jr. executives to the inn for several meetings a week. Xerox Corp. held training sessions there.

And execs would fill up on the restaurant's signature Mexican food before hopping into their jets at nearby Santa Ana Airport, now John Wayne.

Politicians like Reagan, who launched his Orange County campaign for governor at the Saddleback Inn at about the time he shook hands with Napoleon and Gelker, were regulars when it came time to court Orange County voters.

The Saddleback Inn hasn't disappeared completely. Gelker keeps the hotel's vibe at his house in Long Beach.

Every room is filled with Western-theme artifacts, furniture and pictures. The living room has famous paintings by Western artist Olaf Wieghorst; an end table in the family room includes a John Wayne statue capturing “The Duke” in midstride.

Inexplicably breaking theme, a life-size figurehead of a mermaid turns the center wall of the Gelkers' entryway into the bow of a ship.

“Look at how beautiful the wood is,” Gelker said, pointing to the concentric ring patterns on the mermaid's bare chest.

Gelker and his wife of 22 years, Lisa Gelker, split time between the Long Beach house and a house on Catalina Island.

Gelker has three adult children, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

At 90, he's not a stay-at-home sort. He spent a month this summer in Alaska. He's already been to this year's Oktoberfest in Germany.

And, wherever he goes, usually, there are hotels.

The former host is an uneasy – if willing – guest.

“Even if I see something I'd change, I (don't) do anything about it. But I think of how simple it would be to fix,” he said.

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